When Elizabeth LaLonde was born at the Mary Alley Hospital in 1926, Calvin Coolidge was president, Prohibition was in full swing, and the first national radio network had just started broadcasting. In Marblehead, fishing boats still filled the harbor, and the town’s yacht clubs were already drawing summer sailors to the North Shore.
Celebrating her 100th birthday on Friday, April 10, LaLonde reflected back over the last century. The biggest change she has seen is simple.
“Everybody used to know everybody,” she said of the Marblehead in which she grew up. “You could let your kids go out to play and not worry.”
LaLonde, a lifelong Marblehead resident, is now living at Devereux Nursing Skilled Rehab and Nursing Center. Her family is planning a gathering a little later so relatives traveling from out of state can join the celebration.
Her only birthday wish?
“I just want everybody to be well,” she said.
Growing up in “old Marblehead”
Born April 10, 1926, LaLonde spent nearly her entire life in Marblehead, watching the town transform from a close-knit community surrounded by ocean, farms and open fields into the busy place it is today.
She grew up in what she calls “old Marblehead,” near High Street. Her family roots in town stretch back generations.
As a child, LaLonde attended the Gerry School before continuing on through Marblehead High.
Like many local children, her favorite memories revolve around summers by the water.
“We’d go to the beach,” she said with a smile. “We have a lot of them.”
Her favorite was Gas House Beach.
College — and a wartime world
After graduating from MHS, LaLonde headed south to attend college in Kentucky, where her father’s work had taken him. He traveled extensively for Sheepman magazine, a publication connected to the sheep industry that had long been part of his family’s work.
The country was in the midst of World War II during her college years, and daily life reflected the war.
“There were rations,” she said. “You couldn’t buy certain things.”
Even so, she remembers those years as an adventure far from home.
Marriage and family
LaLonde eventually returned to Marblehead, where she met her future husband, Harold, through social gatherings around town.
“Parties,” she said. “Summertime in town.”
The couple married and raised three children together. LaLonde now has five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Her children grew up in the same neighborhood where she had lived as a child, and today one of her sons even owns a home on High Street.
A life of work — and reinvention
Like many women of her generation, LaLonde’s early career options were limited.
“At that time, you couldn’t be a teacher if you were married,” she said.
Instead, she worked as a substitute teacher in Marblehead schools for nearly a decade, stepping into classrooms wherever she was needed.
Later, she took on a completely different challenge — buying a small restaurant called the Bide-A-Wee, a lunchtime and dinner spot she purchased from Doris Bartlett.
Running the restaurant was rewarding but demanding.
“It wasn’t good for married people,” she said with a laugh. “Working 5 [a.m.] to 8 [p.m.] — your social life is out the door.”
After three years, she sold the business.
Following the death of her husband when she was just 48 years old, LaLonde began what would become one of the longest chapters of her working life. She spent about 30 years working in the office of pediatrician Dr. Theodore Dushan in Swampscott.
A century of memories
Over the years, LaLonde witnessed events that reshaped the world, from wartime rationing to dramatic changes in technology and society.
She even had a brush with fame as a teenager, when she met singing cowboy star Roy Rogers backstage at Madison Square Garden while accompanying her father to a livestock event.
Her sister, a horse lover, was especially excited to see Rogers’ famous horse, Trigger.
Life today
LaLonde moved to the Devereux nursing home a little over a year ago, after living independently in her Pleasant Street home well into her late 90s.
These days, she keeps busy with reading and puzzles.
She enjoys romance novels — especially those by Danielle Steel — and spends time working on Sudoku puzzles to keep her mind sharp.
Family visits remain a highlight, including trips around town and occasional lobster dinners brought to her by her son.
Her secret?
Asked about her secret to living a long and healthy life, LaLonde said she didn’t have one.
“It certainly wasn’t exercise,” she said. “Other than a pool class with friends, I never did that.”
